Commerce, clusters, and community: a re‐evaluation of the occupational geography of London, c. 1400–c. 1550

Abstract

The economic geography of cities is often thought to have changed dramatically between the medieval and early modern eras. The medieval city is seen as having been strictly regulated, both in terms of markets, and in terms of space. The early modern city, by contrast, is associated not only with growth, but with the breakdown of rigid regulation by guilds and a new commercial outlook. However, empirical studies of the spatial organization of medieval cities have been limited, and quantitative surveys of urban economic geography have focused on the seventeenth century and later. This article analyses the spatial distribution of occupations in the City of London between the 1370s and the 1550s using a large probate dataset. It examines occupations that remained clustered or dispersed, but concentrates on the apparent breakdown in economic clustering among London's leading trades. Prosopographical analysis reveals that merchants and retailers became more specialized, but that this was accommodated within London's existing guild‐based occupational identities, which had become ossified. Rather than the end of the middle ages having marked a dramatic change from guild‐based spatial organisation, occupational clusters simply continued to evolve in line with the principles of locational economics throughout the period.

Trust, Guilds, and Kinship in London, 1330–1680

“…84 New neighbourhoods spilled beyond its ancient boundaries, and occupations spread, diluting local concentrations of crafts. 85 One driver for this expansion was the expansion of the port, as trade increased and diversified. 86 Much of London's wealth was now in the hands of merchants who were members of multiple organizations, such as the Levant and East India Companies, or none; their guilds were just one among several settings in which they socialized.…”

English Towns in the Later Middle Ages: The Rules and Realities of Population Mobility

“…23 More recently the development of software tools such as Geographic Information and Social Network systems have enabled patterns in urban networks and mobility to be reconstructed in more detail revealing subtle changes in their character over time and between social groups. 24 The move away from a focus on urban institutions has been underpinned by changes in the type of evidence used. A major source of evidence for the movement and experience of people in the Middle Ages comes from archaeology.…”